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Johnathan Murray Lee was born in Spokane, Washington in 1904. He attended grade and high school in Los Angeles, California and received his A.B. degree from Occidental College in 1926. Upon graduation Lee began teaching in the Burbank, California school system. His employment in Burbank (1926-1936) was twice interrupted, in 1927-28 and 1931-32, in order that he could attend Teacher's College of Columbia University where he received the master's degree in 1928 and the Ph.D. in 1934.

During the years spent in the Burbank system Lee progressed up the ranks from teacher to principal and became as well the system's director of research. The summers were taken up with graduate research and teaching assignments in several colleges including Teacher's College. Lee specialized in tests and measurement and curriculum evaluation with an emphasis on the teaching of spelling in the early grades. In 1937 he went to the University of Wisconsin as an assistant professor of education. His stay at Wisconsin lasted about three years. During December 1940 Lee was offered the deanship of the School of Education at Washington State University. He started his new position in February 1941 replacing A.A. Cleveland who had served as dean since 1917. Lee remained as dean from 1941 to 1956 when he left WSU to take a professorship at Southern Illinois University.

Lee's research interests had always been an important part of his role as secondary and college teacher. He published, some in collaboration with his wife Dorris Potter Lee, reading readiness tests, primer and first grade reading tests, prognostic tests in algebra and geometry, and general testing programs in the secondary schools. In addition he published a book on measurement in secondary schools as well as a series of spellers. He also published numerous articles on measurement and curriculum evaluation. Thus Lee came to his new post in 1941 with wide teaching and administrative experience at primary, secondary, and collegiate levels plus extensive scholarly research dating back to his earliest professional years.